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Aberystwyth University is rated the best in Wales and one of the top ten higher education institutions in the UK for overall student satisfaction, according to the National Student Survey.

Overall satisfaction among students at Aberystwyth University is 92%. Credit: Aberystwyth University

The results show that overall satisfaction among students at Aberystwyth University stands at 92% - that’s six percentage points higher than the UK figure of 86%.

The student experience has always been at the heart of everything we do here at Aberystwyth University and these results show how much effort goes into making sure that the experience they have is first-rate.

They also reflect Aberystwyth’s overall aim of ensuring that our students succeed not only at University but also reach their longer-term career objectives.

We have invested in our campus resources but we also focus on research-led teaching and that’s reflected in the quality of teaching here.

They may have been domesticated 10,000 years ago but the genetic past of Welsh sheep has been uncovered by researchers at Aberystwyth University.

They studied eighteen native breeds and found four distinct groups.

Some breeds, like the Black Welsh Mountain Sheep, saw their genetic history mapped back to Scandinavia. They were brought here by the Vikings.

The Llandovery White Face saw its roots traced back to Roman times.

The study even found that one particular breed of sheep, exclusively from the Llyn peninsula in northwest Wales, can trace its genetics back to a single, small flock of sheep
in Galway, Ireland from the early 19th century.

Credit: Tim Ireland/PA Wire

“These findings provide the basis for future genome-wide association studies and a first step towards developing genomics assisted breeding strategies in the UK.”

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Scientists say infections by parasitic flatworms in tropics and sub-tropics cause some of the most debilitating diseases on the planet.

They attack both humans and livestock and with climate change the parasites are extending their range into Europe.

Traditional control methods rely on chemical treatments but a generation has evolved which is resistant to the limited drugs available.

Now an international team of scientists led by Professor Karl Hoffman at Aberystwyth University has been awarded almost £4m to fund a different approach.

The team will produce tools to manipulate the genetic structure of the parasites.

It is hoped new ways will then be found of controlling the diseases.

Creation of these molecular and cellular tools will attract new investigators into our field and increase the rate and number of significant biological discoveries; many of which will lead to the identification of novel control strategies.

Scientists will drill deep into the ice shelf. Credit: Prifysgol Aberystwyth University

Glaciologists from Aberystwyth University will fly to Antarctica at the beginning of November to study large lakes forming on the surface of ice shelves.

Professor Bryn Hubbard and Dr David Ashmore from the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences’ Centre for Glaciology will be working with collaborators from Swansea University on the Larsen C ice shelf.

Larsen C covers an area two and a half times the size of Wales

It's a long, fringing ice shelf in the northwest part of the Weddell Sea, extending along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Professor Hubbard and Dr Ashmore will be using hot water to drill up to 150m down into the 200m deep ice shelf to study the many layers of ice that make up Larsen C.

The ice shelf is significant for scientists trying to understand the effects of climate change on Antarctica.

Two other ice shelves in the area, Larsen A and B, have broken up and disappeared since 1995 and scientists have been trying to understand why.

“Despite its accessibility, this region of Antarctica is surprisingly poorly known on the ground. Dark patches on satellite images appear each summer and these are interpreted as large surface melt ponds, but no one has actually studied them on the ground; to date we don’t even have a photograph of the lakes we believe we will see on Larsen C.

The traditional greeting of a handshake could be responsible for spreading bugs and bacteria, according to a study by Aberystwyth University.

Scientists there carried out research, published today in an American scientific journal, which revealed up to ten times more e-coli can be passed on by a handshake, compared to more modern greetings of a high-five or a fist-bump.

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Young scientists at the Technocamps Beach Lab in Aberystwyth have been displaying their robotic creations in the town this weekend. The robots were made in after school clubs, using a 3D printer to make the plastic parts needed to build them. Kelsey Redmore reports.